Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now
Introduction to Lessons 181-200
- Our next few lessons make a special point of firming up your willingness to make your weak commitment strong; your scattered goals blend into one intent. You are not asked for total dedication all the time as yet. But you are asked to practice now in order to attain the sense of peace such unified commitment will bestow, if only intermittently. It is experiencing this that makes it sure that you will give your total willingness to following the way the course sets forth.
- Our lessons now are geared specifically to widen horizons, and direct approaches to the special blocks that keep your vision narrow and too limited to let you see the value of our goal. We are attempting now to lift theses blocks, however briefly. Words alone can not convey the sense of liberation which their lifting brings. But the experience of freedom and of peace that comes as you give up your tight control of what you see speaks for itself. Your motivation will be so intensified that words become of little consequence. You will be sure of what you want, and what is valueless.
- And so we start our journey beyond words by concentrating first on what impedes your progress still. Experience of what exists beyond defensiveness remains beyond achievement while it is denied. It may be there, but you cannot accept its presence. So now we attempt to go past all defenses for a little while each day. No more than this is asked, because no more than this is needed. It will be enough to guarantee the rest will come.[1]
Notes and Personal Application: Today Jesus introduces us to the next 20 days of lessons which will firm our commitment and blend our scattered goal into one holy intent. Patiently, Jesus awaits our full dedication to His goal for us. Not too much is expected of us, we are only to practice each day loosening our affection for that which has no value and giving our full devotion to that which is everlasting.
Our Course is designed to bring awareness to the falsities of the world, the ways in which the dream of separation has made our sojourn in time seem our only hope and our only chance to live, to breath, to enjoy our being. Here we believe what we think we see with our physical eyes – but Jesus is asking us to get beyond this limitation. To choose to see with the vision of Christ fills our beings with an unspeakable sense of joy, peace, freedom, and adventure. The vision of Christ gives us the ability to know what we want and to know the difference between what has value and what has none!
The next twenty days we will start our journey to that which words cannot convey by focusing on the issues that are holding us back. As long as we do not realize the impediments to our healed vision, as long as we hold fast to that which blinds us, as long as we are afraid to put our trust in God, or believe in His love and devotion toward us, we will never see or accept the great store of riches, the treasures, the everlasting love and joy and peace that He has in store for us.
So from today – June 30th through July 19th, Jesus asks us to devote ourselves to the lesson idea for the day. This will help us get past all the defenses that our egos, the usurper, the stranger within, has erected to block us from knowing who and what we really are, why we are here, and how we can return to our Creator.
This is all it takes. A little while each day, and the rest will come – and that is a guarantee.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Introduction to Lessons 181-200. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
Audio credit: http://www.eckiefriar.com
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